Father and Son
by xXxAngel-With-A-ShotgunxXx
Summary: Becoming a father at fifteen was not something that Ponyboy had planned on, but Chase was worth every last struggle.


**Father and Son**

**1. Introduction**

"Daddy! Daddy, wake up!"

As he opened his eyes, Ponyboy yawned and slowly sat up. Next to him, his four-year old son, Chase, was bouncing on his knees and grinning. Looking over at the clock, Ponyboy barely held in a groan when he saw that it was only half-six in the morning.

"What are you doin' up, Chase?" Ponyboy asked, looking down at his son tiredly, trying to shake off the last remnants of sleep.

Chase bounced a little more. "Can I give uncle Soda my present now, daddy?"

Ponyboy couldn't hide his grin. He pulled Chase onto his lap and chuckled. "It's too early, kiddo. He's still asleep."

Chase pouted. "Can't we wake him up, daddy?"

Ponyboy shook his head. "No, we can't. We'll let him sleep in, just like we did on your birthday."

Getting out of bed with Chase in his arms, Ponyboy walked into the kitchen, set his son down on one of the chairs and began sorting drinks out for them.

It was strange. Every day of the year, Chase would wake up at any godforsaken hours of the morning and always make sure that Ponyboy woke up with him. However, on his birthday, Ponyboy actually got to sleep in for once, because Chase always liked staying in bed until everyone had arrived in the mornings. Besides his father, Chase got along best with Sodapop. He liked Steve and Two-Bit, his honorary uncles, and loved having them come around the house. Chase didn't get along well with Darry, but Ponyboy knew that was his fault.

When Ponyboy told Darry that his girlfriend was pregnant, Darry had exploded. It hadn't mattered to Darry that Ponyboy had used protection; it was the fact that his brother had sexual intercourse at fourteen and was going to be a father because of it. Ponyboy's girlfriend at the time, Carol, had been on the pill - her family could afford that and it had been recommended by her doctor, to help with her menstrual cycle - and Ponyboy had also used a condom. It wasn't the first time they'd had sex, but it was the last.

Carol had caught the flu and used a string of antibiotics for a while, which counteracted the birth control pills that she took. Add in a broken condom and that equaled one unplanned pregnancy.

Carol hadn't wanted to be a mother so, with the help of her parents, had taken measures to hide the pregnancy. She'd called Ponyboy to tell him and they'd come to the agreement that Ponyboy would raise the baby, because he damn well wasn't giving his child up for adoption, or to be placed in foster care.

Placing Chase's drink in front of him and taking a sip of his own, Ponyboy remembered when he'd told Darry and Soda about the pregnancy in that very room.

He had to give Darry some credit; he'd waited to hear the whole story before exploding. Sodapop had tried to calm the fight down, but he'd been too late. Words - _hurtful_ words - had been exchanged between them and things hadn't been the same since. Ponyboy could take it when Darry said he wasn't using his head, because that was true a fair bit of the time. However, in his anger, Darry had said a lot of things that he couldn't take back later on and Ponyboy hadn't let him.

Eventually, Ponyboy had forgiven Darry, they'd come to some kind of truce and they got along much better, but things hadn't been the same. That one argument had hung between them ever since and Chase seemed to sense the tension between them. It wasn't that Ponyboy didn't love Darry and that Darry didn't love Ponyboy; it was just the months of tension - the hard time getting through Johnny and Dally's deaths, the bills, Social Services breathing down their necks, the Socs still giving everyone a hard time - had finally been released in that one argument. They'd released all of their anger, tension and frustrations out on the only available sources at the time - each other - and now their words couldn't be taken back. They loved each other ... it just wasn't the same. Ponyboy had never let Darry tell him how to raise Chase, though he'd often tried to give him advice. No, Darry had no say in Chase's life. He was an uncle, not a parent or a guardian, and Ponyboy had made sure that was well-known. Now, not one single person questioned his authority with Chase and he'd often received praise for his son being such a polite young man.

Ponyboy loved both of his brothers, but now he had Chase to look after. Ever since coming into the world, Chase had gotten his undivided attention and Ponyboy would never let anyone take that away from him. In the beginning, it'd been hard and he'd often found himself wondering if giving Chase away really was best for him but, in the end, his paternal instincts had overruled any hesitation.

This wasn't the way that Ponyboy had planned for his life to turn out, but he wouldn't change a thing. He had a son that he loved, he had a full-time job and he was taking a few college classes in the fall, while Chase was at pre-school. He had plans to get out of Tulsa, if he could. He wouldn't have Chase brought up in the enviroment that he was. He wasn't going to have Chase worry about East vs West, or which gang he needed to form an alliance with, in order to survive.

He wondered if Chase would like to see the ocean.

* * *

**Author's Note****:- This was just a small idea that came to me. The chapters following will be small clips throughout Ponyboy and Chase's life. There will be no particular order to them and I'm happy to take any requests for clips that you'd like to see. There won't be regular updates, but this story will be updated. Please Review and let me know what you think.**

**Enjoy!**


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